Ladies, I have found the perfect doo-rag, or helmet liner, whichever you prefer.

I’ve always liked my hair long, rather than wearing it short – it’s just easier for me to keep it that way.  If it’s short, I have to wash it every day, which tends to make it flyaway and brittle. Longer hair I can do every other day, and it’s still manageable.

When I first started riding, I tried regular cotton doo-rags- of course, I always had helmet hair, but I thought that was just part of the deal. While I wore it, though, my head itched, and I could feel the heat coming off my head when I took off the doo rag; my hair was always mashed flat and damp from sweating.  Lately I’d just started putting on my helmet with no doo rag; the helmet interior pulled my hair and my pony tail got tangled, but again, I figured that was part of the deal.

So when Randy and I saw a booth at Thunder Beach with the claim that this doo rag prevented tangles and helmet hair, I had to challenge the lady. She had waist-length hair and said she had invented this new thingie because she got tired of her husband having to wait on her while she got ready to ride.  After she showed me how it worked,  and I felt the material, I thought it was worth a try, so I bought one (tiger stripes!).

You can believe me or not, but that’s been one of the best purchases I’ve made lately.   I wore mine all day Saturday while we rode- when we’d stop, I’d take it off and shake my hair out and it didn’t even look like I’d been riding! While we were riding I couldn’t even really tell I was wearing anything; my head didn’t get hot or itch; and my hair didn’t get mashed down flat.  The material is stretchy and breathable, so no sweat or heat built up underneath it, and it also didn’t cause any static to build up in my hair.

The real test came when we started home and crossed the state line into Alabama- ‘bama has helmet laws so I had to put it back on, but my head still didn’t get as hot as it usually does, and it seemed to fit better.  When we got home that night, again, I took the liner off and brushed my hair with my fingers and fluffed it up and it was fine. Obviously, mine isn’t going to look like I’ve just blow-dried it out (I have a LOT of hair), but just knowing it wasn’t plastered to my head made me appreciate it.

You need to check out Anna’s website to see all the details of how it works and the styles she’s got – Raci-Babi – I’ll be putting in an order for the Avatar Blue on next- its gorgeous!

Ladies, this is a great product! If your hair is at least shoulder-length, this is something you need to check out. Once you try it, I promise you that you won’t want to go back to a regular doo rag.

It always amazes me to watch someone make a snap judgment about a person, simply by the way they look: if a person is overweight, they’re lazy; if they wear glasses, they’re smart; and if they’re bikers, they’re obviously in a gang that’s just robbed the church.
For some reason, black leather, doo rags, tattoos and biker boots means bad news, to adults, at least… a little kid usually has a totally different take on things. For example, while on our way home from Pigeon Forge, we stopped for a rest break. As we were walking towards the bathrooms, a little blonde cutie-pie came out holding her grandmother’s hand. She took one look at my husband (big ol’ teddy bear of a guy: full beard and mustache, dark glasses, gloves and boots, a smile as wide as the horizon and of course, a doo rag) and said “look, Grandma, a pirate!” with a big smile. Then she spotted me and said, “oh, another pirate!” She  made fast friends with my husband and talked to him for several minutes. We almost always get smiles and waves from kids.
We’ve had a few negative responses as well, usually from adults. They either don’t like how we look, or that we’re riding motorcycles. They look like they smell something bad…
But those folks are in the minority – most folks are about as friendly as they can be – I smile and they smile back. One little old lady at a bank patted my arm just like my grandma would have, and said, ‘honey you just have air conditioning all the time, don’t you? you be safe out there!” and then walked on with a smile.I always try to smile and be friendly towards other folks, to reach out to them and show them it’s OK to smile at me and say hello.
I think the folks who judge me and mine harshly are those whose deepest heart’s desire was once to ride, but something kept them from it – either fear, whether of judgment or of an accident; or someone with authority over them refused to let them ride.
So, I guess I should pity those who look down on us – they either want to be where we are, but don’t have the strength to do it, or they think we’re less than them because of who and what we are. Maybe we look like we’re having too good a time to care whether our hair is combed, or that I’m not wearing makeup; maybe they can see on our faces that we’re doing something enjoyable and don’t care what others think; or maybe they just never learned to be happy. Either way, I’m sorry for them…
In the end, my newest patch says it all: Judge me all you want, just keep your verdict to yourself.